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Battle of the Bands
Battle of the Bands is a competition to find out the most popular band on GameFAQs. Ulti has hosted five editions of BotB, with the first taking place in 2003 and the most recent happening in 2010. BotB voting is held on the GameFAQs music boards plus the most popular social boards on the site. The three boards where the Contest has been hosted every season are * Board 8 * LUE * Music: Rock Other boards to host the contest are Poll of the Day, Current Events, Hacked, Music: Metal and Final Fantasy Tactics - Social. Results and Highlights Battle of the Bands I - 2003 The original BotB was won by #2 seeded Pink Floyd, which survived a 2 vote scare from Led Zeppelin to make the Championship Match. In the Final Floyd dispatched of #8 Tool fairly easily, ending its Cinderella run (it had upset the Red Hot Chili Peppers by 2 votes to sneak into the final match). Other notes from this contest include a six month delay, due to Ulti having no computer access at the time. * Complete BotB 1 Bracket Battle of the Bands II - 2004 For the sequel, Ulti doubled the field to give a full 128 bands a chance at glory. In the end, Led Zeppelin avenged its earlier loss by defeating Pink Floyd in the Final Four to set up an epic Championship battle against Queen, which had easily topped Jimi Hendrix to get there. 572 votes later, Led Zep had topped Queen in a tough fight to claim victory in by far the most popular match in BotB history. * Complete BotB 2 Bracket Battle of the Bands III - 2005 The field was back to 64 entrants for BotB 3, and once again it was Queen and Led Zeppelin rewriting the record books with a very exciting 555 vote clash in the Final Four. However, this time Queen was able to reverse the result and score a close victory, then go on to defeat Iron Maiden in a hard fought Championship where an incredible 753 total votes were cast. The other highlight of the season was Bob Dylan's stunning Cinderella run -- despite being only a 13 seed, he came within 9 votes of upsetting Iron Maiden in their Final Four matchup. * Complete BotB 3 Bracket Battle of the Bands IV - 2009 The fourth season of BotB is now finished. This contest saw many upsets due to efforts from the Music: Metal Board. The first round saw two major upsets by metal bands: (15)Kamelot beating (2)Radiohead and (13)Ulver beating (4)Guns N' Roses. The second round also had two major upsets: (2)Metallica saw an early exit when they lost to (10)Agalloch, which had previously upset (7)Nirvana, and (5)Acid Bath came from nowhere to shock (4)Smashing Pumpkins. Other upsets have occurred thanks to mainstream metal bands becoming infused by big metal board pushes, including (6)Black Sabbath defeating (3)The Beatles and (4)Megadeth defeating (1)Led Zeppelin -- causing this to be the first contest NOT featuring a Led Zeppelin vs Pink Floyd match -- and (2)Pink Floyd back-to-back. The final match saw a very game (3)Rush (in the final via upsetting (1)Queen) almost come back from down 70 votes, but couldn't get over that final hump en route to Iron Maiden's first Battle of the Bands championship, by a score of 288-280. The upsets have been a major point of contention on the other boards, especially on Board 8 (which is used to putting out the largest vote totals and deciding most matches), but overall this has been the most successful and popular multi-board contest of Ulti's. This was the first contest in which Ulti openly allowed rallying (which he highly shunned in the past), and the metal board took the most advantage of it. Though the metal board can't cause big upsets alone, they've constantly put out the biggest topics and often have crazy vote margins therein. This isn't to say the other boards involved in this contest haven't been as important, but the metal board clearly shined above the others all through this entire competition, and it shows in the bracket. * Complete BotB 4 Bracket Battle of the Bands V - 2010 Nominations opened on April 14th, 2010, and voting began on the 21st. It was a 128 band bracket. The metal board DOMINATED voting in this contest, and when paired with LUE and Hacked being removed halfway through due to lack of votes it led to some bizarre results. Only a select few times all contest was the metal board out-rallied, but in most matches they decided the winner. In the end, (1)Black Sabbath ended (7)Tom Waits' upset run in the final by a score of 151-148 to become the 5th different winner in 5 contests. But in getting to that point, we saw a ton of crazy runs and upsets. Of the final eight bands -- (1)Iron Maiden, (2)Slough Feg, (1)Black Sabbath, (3)Judas Priest, (4)Bathory, (4)King Crimson, (7)Tom Waits and (1)Cormorant -- five were in their first-ever contest appearance. (2)Slough Feg made the craziest run of anyone, beating (1)Iron Maiden to make the semifinal and coming very close to making the final itself. (3)Judas Priest won their big rematch against (1)Rush, (4)Bathory pulled off a shocker against (1)Megadeth, (4)King Crimson beat (2)Pink Floyd and (1)Cormorant beat (2)Queen. Other silly upsets included (5)Electric Wizard beating (1)The Beatles, (11)Atheist beating (3)Morbid Angel, (9)Emperor beating (1)Kamelot, (12)Manilla Road beating (5)Modest Mouse and (4)Smashing Pumpkins, (8)Neurosis beating (1)Metallica, (15)Maudlin of the Well beating (2)Muse and (10)Yes making the divisional finals round. But among all the madness, one match stood out above all the rest: (10)The Rolling Stones versus (2)Dismember. Board 8 was tired of the metal board dominating things, so they decided to form their hardest counter-rally all contest. Both boards ultimately went nuts rallying, and the match went to overtime so it all extended to a second day. (2)Dismember managed to survive (10)The Rolling Stones and win 305-291, but it took the first 500 topic in Battle of the Bands history to pull it off. * Complete BotB 5 Bracket Category:Contests